The Transformers star will appear opposite Alec Baldwin in a revival of Lyle Kessler's 1983 drama Orphans, in which two brothers plot to kidnap a mobster, at the Schoenfeld theatre. Previews start on 19 March. LaBeouf will play Treat, the elder and more controlling of the brothers, while Baldwin will play the old-school gangster Harold. Casting for Phillip, Treat's brother, has not yet been finalised. All three characters are orphans.

Baldwin is something of a Broadway veteran, having debuted in Joe Orton's Loot opposite Zoe Wanamaker in 1986. He has since played Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and Macbeth, as well as starring in another Orton farce, Entertaining Mr Sloane, off-Broadway.

Kessler's play, which has been credited with Pinteresque undertones by critics in the past, had a high-profile run in LA seven years ago, when Baldwin's Glengarry Glen Ross co-star Al Pacino played the kidnapped gangster. Following its premiere and a Steppenwolf theatre revival that proved a hit off-Broadway in 1985, Kessler adapted the play for a film that starred Albert Finney, who had recently won an Olivier award for his performance in its London premiere at the Apollo theatre.